Have we always "sworn like sailors"? Has creative cursing developed because we can't just slug people when they make us angry? And if such verbal aggression is universal, why is it that some languages (Japanese, for instance) supposedly do not contain any nasty words? Throughout the twentieth century there seems to have been a dramatic escalation in... more...

Written with charm and quaint wit, this study embarks on a voyage of discovery among the words that once peppered the language of baby boomers and their parents to discover why they seem to be slipping from common use. Why is it that people don't say cheerio any more? Why did they in the first place? Do people still tinker with jalopies? And... more...

Silence is often the most powerful form of communication and it is silence that still dominates the homes of Holocaust survivors and their families, even after half a century. Through interviews with children of survivors, this book explores communication in survivor families from the perspective of the postwar generation. Explaining the effects of... more...

Grammar Dictation offers an innovative approach to the study of grammar in the language classroom - the 'grammar dictation' or 'dictogloss' procedure. A text is dictated at normal speed, after which students try and reconstruct their own version of the original text. The correction process then enables students to understand their errors... more...